Citigroup Inc.’s reverse stock split debuted Monday to much fanfare. The mechanics of the move are dead simple. Citi
C, -0.45%
worried that fund managers won’t pack portfolios with stocks trading at less than $10 a share, lumped 10 shares together in one new share. Just like that, what closed Friday at $4.52 a share opened Monday at $45.12 a share.

This does nothing to revalue the company. Citi’s market capitalization remains the same. So do its assets, its reserves, its debt, goodwill and all the other things that make up a company’s worth.

How about using the same sleight-of-hand on oil prices, only in reverse?

The market is transfixed by $100 crude, just as motorists are transfixed by gasoline at $4 a gallon. The difference between a barrel of oil at $100 versus $99 is a piddling 1% — no more, no less. But topping $100 clearly shapes the way people think about fuel consumption, giving that 1% way more clout over consumer behavior than it deserves.

So what if the energy industry cut the size of a barrel of crude from 42 gallons to 21 gallons? The price of a barrel of crude would immediately drop from a very pricey-sounding $102 to a much cheaper $51. Read the latest on crude-oil prices.

The same trick could be applied to the rest of the price chain. Ditch gallons. They’re a downer. Gasoline could be marketed at 99.9 cents a quart. It would make no difference to fuel efficiency, but it’d put a smile on lots of motorists’ faces and make it much easier for them to climb back behind the wheel for a trip to the mall: good for the oil companies, good for retailers, good for the economy.

Of course, this isn’t going to happen. But it points to the importance of manipulating perceptions in a marketplace. And while it would take a massive industrywide effort to recalibrate oil prices, the concept itself is no less ridiculous than a Citi’s decision to “reverse split” its shares.

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